Leaked communications suggest that the UN’s migration agency is censoring itself on the climate crisis and the global compact on migration, following pressure from the US government.

An email sent by a US-based official of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 28 August to colleagues around the world relayed that the US state department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) told the agency documents related to programme activities it funds “must not be in conflict with current [US government] political sensitivities”.

Sensitivities include the climate crisis, sustainable development goals, the global compact for migration and “anything that seems at odds with the administration’s take on US domestic/foreign issues”, the official wrote in the email.

The chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in an email that he will be investigating the agency's response to President Trump's claims that Hurricane Dorian posed a threat to Alabama. The Washington Post reported Monday that Craig McLean, NOAA's acting chief scientist, wrote an email to colleagues that said the agency's response to Mr. Trump's claims were "political" and a "danger to public health and safety."

"I am pursuing the potential violations of our NOAA Administrative Order on Scientific Integrity," McLean wrote, according to the Washington Post.

Last week, Mr. Trump held up a NOAA map that appeared to have been altered with a black pen to show a projection of the storm possibly striking Alabama. On Friday, NOAA backed up the president's ongoing assertions that the state appeared initially to be in the path of the hurricane.

Hurricane Dorian struck the northern Bahamas as a catastrophic Category 5 storm Sunday, its record 185 mph winds ripping off roofs, overturning cars and tearing down power lines as hundreds hunkered down in schools, churches and shelters.

Dorian slammed into Elbow Cay in the Abaco Islands at 12:40 p.m., and then made a second landfall near Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco Island at 2 p.m., after authorities made last-minute pleas for those in low-lying areas to evacuate.

“It’s devastating,” said Joy Jibrilu, director general of the Bahamas’ Ministry of Tourism and Aviation. “There has been huge damage to property and infrastructure. Luckily, no loss of life reported.”

The National Hurricane Center said the storm, with wind gusts exceeding 200 mph, had rolled to within 205 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida, as of 11 a.m. and was heading west at about 7 mph. The storm was expected to turn north, and it remained unclear where landfall might occur.

A long stretch of the coast including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina remained in play.

The Trump administration laid out on Thursday a far-reaching plan to cut back on the regulation of methane emissions, a major contributor to climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule aims to eliminate federal requirements that oil and gas companies install technology to detect and fix methane leaks from wells, pipelines and storage facilities. It would also reopen the question of whether the E.P.A. had the legal authority to regulate methane as a pollutant.

Donald Trump did not attend Monday’s crucial discussion on climate and biodiversity at the G7 meeting of international leaders in Biarritz, missing talks on how to deal with the Amazon rainforest fires as well as new ways to cut carbon emissions.

Reporters noticed at the start of the session that the US president’s chair was empty.

Trump was later asked by reporters covering a meeting with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, whether he had attended the climate session. He replied: “We’re having it in a little while.” He did not appear to hear when a reporter told him it had just taken place.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, confirmed Trump had not personally attended the climate session but that Trump’s team had been present.

Security and national security officials that they explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States, according to sources who have heard the president's private remarks and been briefed on a National Security Council memorandum that recorded those comments.

Behind the scenes: During one hurricane briefing at the White House, Trump said, "I got it. I got it. Why don't we nuke them?" according to one source who was there. "They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they're moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can't we do that?" the source added, paraphrasing the president's remarks.

TVNLComment: At the least, this is a really bad, bad idea. But not surprising from someone who is totally ignorant of scientific realities.